ABA therapy has its own vocabulary. As an RBT candidate, you're expected to know these terms cold — they appear on the exam and in every clinical session. This glossary covers the 12 most important concepts with definitions you can actually understand.
Reinforcement
A consequence that increases the future likelihood of a behavior. Positive reinforcement adds something preferred; negative reinforcement removes something aversive.
Example: Giving a sticker after a child completes a task (positive). Turning off a loud alarm when the child sits down (negative).
Punishment
A consequence that decreases the future likelihood of a behavior. Positive punishment adds something aversive; negative punishment removes something preferred.
Example: Adding extra homework after disruption (positive). Removing recess after fighting (negative).
Extinction
Withholding reinforcement for a previously reinforced behavior, causing the behavior to decrease over time. Often produces an "extinction burst" — a temporary increase before decrease.
Example: A child who tantrums for attention no longer receives any attention for tantrums. Tantrums spike briefly then decline.
Discriminative Stimulus (SD)
A stimulus that signals that reinforcement is available for a particular response. It sets the occasion for behavior.
Example: A teacher saying "What color is this?" while holding a red card. The vocal instruction is the SD.
Motivating Operation (MO)
A variable that temporarily alters the value of a reinforcer and the likelihood of behaviors that produce it. Establishing operations increase value; abolishing operations decrease it.
Example: Being hungry (EO) makes food more reinforcing. Having just eaten (AO) makes food less reinforcing.
Prompt
An antecedent stimulus that helps the learner produce a correct response. Types include physical, gestural, model, verbal, and positional.
Example: Pointing to the correct answer (gestural), demonstrating the action (model), or physically guiding the child's hand (physical).
Prompt Fading
The systematic reduction of prompts to promote independent responding. The goal is for the learner to respond to the SD alone without any help.
Example: Gradually moving from hand-over-hand guidance → a light touch on the wrist → pointing → no prompt.
Stimulus Control
A behavior is under stimulus control when it occurs reliably in the presence of a specific stimulus (SD) and not in its absence.
Example: A child says "dog" only when shown a picture of a dog, not when shown a cat. The response is under stimulus control.
Generalization
The occurrence of a learned behavior in untrained conditions — new settings, people, materials, or times.
Example: A child learns to say "please" at school and begins saying "please" at home and at the store.
Maintenance
The continuation of a learned behavior after the intervention or teaching procedure has been removed.
Example: A student continues to raise their hand months after the token economy was faded out.
ABC Data
A recording method that documents the Antecedent (what happened before), Behavior (what the person did), and Consequence (what happened after) for each occurrence of a target behavior.
Example: A: Teacher gives math worksheet. B: Student throws paper. C: Student is sent to the hall.
IOA (Interobserver Agreement)
A measure of the extent to which two independent observers agree on the occurrence of a behavior. High IOA (≥80%) indicates reliable data collection.
Example: Observer A records 15 instances of hand-raising; Observer B records 14. IOA = (14/15) × 100 = 93%.
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Registered Behavior Technician (RBT) · Psychology Student
Mike Hernandez is a certified Registered Behavior Technician (RBT) pursuing an Associate in Psychology. He created ABA Sprout to give fellow RBT candidates the affordable, accessible study tools he wished he had during his own certification journey.